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Is a Society That Disregards Children Civilized?

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Some years ago, my wife and I went on two church trips. First, we went to New York City to work with a children’s ministry based in a distressed section of Brooklyn. As previously reported, we found the average child to be living in appalling conditions. In some areas, young children consistently had black, rotten baby teeth. The children were essentially taking care of themselves. The main problem was that their parents were either physically absent or totally absorbed with their own issues. The reason for all of this chaos was drug addiction and the crime that it causes. We … Continue reading →

Basic Nurture: Catching Up

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When a child has not received basic nurturing as an infant, there is a deep need to receive what he missed, even if it comes several years later. I want to preface what I am about to write by saying that I am not a medical or psychological expert. I am raising children who were deprived of their basic necessities as infants. My wife and I have done our best to solve the problem based upon information from people who are experts and various publications which address the issue. Three of our children came to us when they were four … Continue reading →

Another Baby Left With Boyfriend Tragedy

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It is another verse of the same song that seems to be playing everywhere. The twenty year old mother of a fourteen month old little girl went to work and left the child with her twenty-one year old boy friend who lived with them. When she came back to the couple’s apartment from her job, she discovered that the child was unconscious. She summoned help in the apartment complex and someone administered CPR to the child. It was too late. The child was dead when they arrived at a local hospital. Upon examining the baby, medical personnel noticed unusual swelling … Continue reading →

Getting My Mind Right: The Next Phase

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I am now very near the end of the diet that I have been on since late May of last year. I am not at my original goal of weighing less than 180 pounds, I weigh 190. But, I have achieved all of my other goals and I am starting to wonder if I need for my weight to go that low. At my monthly appointment with my doctor, he noted that my face was starting to look gaunt. My wife echoed his comments. Her thoughts were that I am in great physical shape, my health problems have been alleviated, … Continue reading →

Adoptive Parents Need Compassion

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A good friend died a few years ago. He was the most compassionate man that I have ever known. He was a staff pastor at the church that our family attended for fifteen years. Early on, I recognized that he was someone special and asked him if I could tag along when he was ministering to people. We met about twenty years ago. I was struggling with the things that God was doing with my life. I was feeling a lot of compassion for people, but I was also mad at some folks and downright difficult with others. My friend … Continue reading →

The Trend to Open Adoption

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Apparently, the current trend in adoption circles is toward open adoption. In an open adoption, the birth parent is allowed to occasionally have contact with the children. Most of the prominent adoption magazines strongly recommend it. It is also the in-vogue direction that social work academics seem to be leaning. My wife and I were recently driving home from a three day vacation and “just for fun”, Nancy called in to a very popular national radio show hosted by a well-known family issues psychologist. The radio host seemed oblivious to all of our good reasons to avoid our children’s birth … Continue reading →

Living Our Dream Life

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Today, our daughter played her violin with the praise orchestra at a large church. She is a professional violinist and this church hires her when they need her. My daughter knew at a very early age that playing the violin would be a major part of her life. She is living out her dream. At about age sixteen, she cleared her schedule so she could start practicing long hours. She majored in violin performance in college and graduated with high honors. She performs at various places in Houston and traveled, before she was married, with a contemporary Christian band. She … Continue reading →

Black Males Are Lagging Academically

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A school board member at Houston’s largest school system has noticed the discouraging state statistics showing that African American males are lagging behind all other demographic groups academically. He checked the records in Houston and found that black males were scoring at or near the lowest levels in every course and at every grade level. This fact is something that almost everyone in educational circles knows, but few are actually talking about. He has a plan to try and turn the situation around in Texas. His plan is called the Texas Minority Male Youth Initiative. He hopes to stir up … Continue reading →

Adoption Day #2

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I have detailed in a number of blogs what turned out to be a fight for Isaiah. He came to our house on a “foster to adopt” basis because we already had adopted his four older maternal brothers. His birth mother had been encouraged by a movie (Losing Isaiah) to fight for his custody. She finally decided, during court ordered mediation, to sign a relinquishment of her parental rights. We agreed to send her, through an intermediary to protect our identity, pictures and a narrative of all five boys every six months. We had a “goodbye visit” with her and … Continue reading →

Getting Right With God

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Yesterday, I wrote a lot about what I used to be like and how I am remembered in my home town. An event took place about twenty-five years ago that completely changed me in every way. In my college days, I was wild and up to no good. When I married at twenty-nine, I had stopped the riotous living, but my heart had not changed at all. Shortly after Nancy and I got married, we moved to my hometown and I joined a law firm. We starting attending the church that my family had attended for several generations. We became … Continue reading →